Posts in the category Clothing-Gear-Tools

While every manufacturer wants to be known for producing quality products, there are a few companies that have become so highly renowned for particular parts that they’ve achieved legend status in cycling history. Thomson’s superlight seatposts and Profile’s BMX cranks are two examples, and if you ask most riders “Who makes the best headsets in cycling?” I’d bet my last dollar they’d say Chris King.

Of course Chris King produces a wide range of other goodies, all to the same high-performance standard of their ubiquitous and time-tested headsets. The company has just announced some new products including two carbon road wheelsets, thru-axles for disc brake equipped road bikes, and a shop apron to keep you clean through the dirty work of bike maintenance. Click below the break for all the info…READ MORE ->

Beijing based startup IN SENTH has been cooking up an interesting concept in cycling specific augmented reality eyewear. The SENTH IN1 AR glasses have been simmering over several years of development (the first concepts for the design were in 2012) and four rounds of functional prototypes and are finally ready for public consumption. This system keeps your eyes on the road and off of your handlebars, supplementing your existing riding experience with smart interfacing with your phone and existing ANT+ sensors… READ MORE ->

If you’ve been watching this year’s Tour de France, it’s likely you’ve caught a glimpse of Rudy Project’s latest on an array of teams in the Peloton. The Tralyx is a new shield-style sunglass from the Italian eyewear and helmet company that’ll be available in the coming months. Peer past the break for more images and info… READ MORE ->

To accommodate inflation aficionados that go both ways, SILCA has expanded their floor pump offerings to include the SuperPista Ultimate PLUS pump. Packaged with both low and high pressure laboratory grade gauges accurate to +/-1% pressure (rather than the +/-5% accuracy of standard industrial gauges), riders can now dial in cross or road inflation depending on the season. Kicking yourself because you have already invested in a non-PLUS SuperPista Ultimate? SILCA has also introduced low and high pressure gauge kits to give you the best inflation accuracy per the season with your existing SuperPista Ultimate. Allow SILCA to pump you up after the jump. READ MORE ->

Thinking of themselves as the smallest premium shoe company, Swiss Suplest put some unique touches into their shoes that end up standing out from the bunch. The new Edge3 collection is built around the Ego 360° last that it shares with their whole range, and will come in both road and mountain outsoles. The Edge3 gets Boa dials and stiff outsoles for power transfer, but a supple microfiber upper paired with extensive mesh to fit comfortably and breathe well.

Join us after the break for the low-down on the Pro, Performance, and Sport features…

Expanding on the Spider Plus 2 shoes that we’ve have on a long-term test this year, Northwave worked with Cedric Gracia to develop a shoe specifically targeted to Enduro racing. The Enduro Mid shoes (above) carry over the all-synthetic thermowelded uppers of the Spider than makes them quite durable and water resistant. They also get a heavily reinforced toe and a padded tongue for comfort and extra security. On the Enduros Northwave’s SLW2 (Boa-like) adjustment dial gets a special cover to guard against rock strikes while still allowing fine fit control. The new Enduro shoes gets a X-Fire Michelin outsole, soft inside for great pedal grip and harder on the outer edges for more stability and longer wear. The Enduro Mid shoe is also to be joined by a low cut option as well, replacing the dial with a SpeedLace2 (SL2) closing system.

Believe it or not, there are still those out there that don’t embrace tubeless technology. More surprising, is that at least according to Tubeless Solutions there are even shops out there who are uncomfortable with performing tubeless conversions. Their reasoning? Mostly the potential mess, the amount of time it takes, and the uncertainty of ensuring a complete seal before the tire walks out the door.

Like many stories behind intriguing products, the Tubeless Tower started with the thought that there had to be a better way to install tubeless tires. Roughly three years ago, Tim Voegeli and his brother Phil starting kicking around the idea and wanted to figure out a way to make the process easier. At the time Tim was riding tubeless on every one of his bikes – Phil on the other hand who is admittedly an “anal retentive electrical engineer” was still happily riding with tubes. Eventually Tim convinced Phil to give tubeless a try and after an entire year on his commuter without flats (25 miles round trip), he says he was sold.

After the first prototypes were drawn up, the design has been tweaked, put through design panels at Pitt State University, redesigned with design work and CAD modeling from their friend Byron Loibl, patented, and is finally nearing production form. Almost every step of the way, all of those involved say they were instantly sold after seeing Tim install a tire on the stand. That’s not really surprising. Even we were a bit skeptical, but once you see everything the stand does, you really will wonder why no one has thought of this before…

Don’t call ’em a skate shoe. Osiris may be best known for their skate and BMX footwear, but thanks to their recent collaboration with Zoic you can add mountain biking to that list as well. Even though the number of riders turning to flat pedals seems to be increasing, the flat specific footwear market hasn’t been as quick to respond. In a space that had been practically owned by 5.10 for years, the recent loss of Teva’s options opens the door for smaller brands like Zoic to have a go.

Rather than creating their own footwear from scratch, they are instead partnering with an already established name. Representing the first product out of their ‘Linked Collab’ with with Osiris, the Prophet should be the perfect match to Zoic’s casual style…

If the shoe fits, wear it. Now that will be a lot easier to accomplish if you happen to be looking at Shimano shoes for road, Tri, mountain, and just about anything in between. Part of an impressive 18 new models from Shimano, the new additions to the road, Women’s road and mountain, and Tri market bring the total number of models to 71 total footwear designs. Of those 71, now there are 16 women’s specific models of which many like the new RP2W, RP3W, RP5w, and TR9W use the exact same technology as their male counterparts.

Fitting into their new Road Performance category, the four new models seek to offer an ideal balance of performance at attainable prices and high comfort levels. All of the new RP series shoes are built ont he Shimano Dynalast shape and with the exception of the RP9 above, all RP models are available in a narrower women’s specific fit. The reason for the lack of the women’s RP9 happens to be due to the fact that there is a new WR84 which steps in as a new competitive race shoe for the ladies…